


Chicken Little

by antonomasia09



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Eleanor Shellstrop, F/M, Flying Nutella, Frequent misuse of trees, Misuse of Ancient Chinese Philosophy, questionable decisions after 12 am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 01:18:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14414523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antonomasia09/pseuds/antonomasia09
Summary: Eleanor is really bad at being good.





	Chicken Little

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the April 2018 x-funtags challenge featuring the following tags: "Frequent misuse of trees," "Flying Nutella," and "questionable decisions after 12 am."

Eleanor was trying to be good. She was trying so hard. But _god_ , these people were not making it easy. Especially Tahani, with her smug tea party invitations and her disgusting delicate little finger sandwiches and her long gorgeous hair… Anyway. This was the second night in a row that Eleanor had been woken up by proof of her failure - jars of nutella zoomed past her window, illuminated by periodic flashes of lightning.

She kind of wanted to just stick her head under her pillows and hide until it all went away, but she could hear Chidi attempting to pry open her bedroom doors, and shouting, “Eleanor! Eleanor, are you all right?”

Well, there was no way she was going to be able to go back to sleep now, so she opened the door for him, and only snickered a little when he stumbled in. “I’m fine,” she said and plastered on a smile. “Is there any chance I could convince you that all of this isn’t my fault?”

“Well, considering the fact that I watched you smear nutella on Tahani’s couch this afternoon instead of wiping your hands on a napkin, and then try to blame it on Jianyu, no, I don’t think so.”

Oh. She hadn’t realized he’d seen that. “In my defense, they were very messy sandwiches, and there weren’t any napkins within reach. And it wasn’t like I was going to wipe my hands on my clothes, that would be gross.“

Chidi spluttered, his face scrunching up, and wow, that shouldn’t have been as cute as it was. 

“So get up and wash your hands. Argh, it’s like you’re deliberately trying to get yourself kicked out!”

She folded her arms. “The Ancient Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi believed that there needed to be a balance between good and evil, order and chaos, yin and yang. Otherwise the good is just meaningless.”

Chidi stared at her, rendered momentarily speechless. She smirked back. “I didn’t include any Ancient Chinese philosophy books in my reading list,” he said, finally. “Have you been doing extra research?”

Actually no, she’d picked up that tidbit from an ex-boyfriend who never shut up about the wonders of tai chi. Their relationship had ended when he found out she was cheating on him with his much hotter tai chi instructor.

“I might have,” she said evasively. “The point is, maybe I really am supposed to be here, to make the rest of you look better.”

“I… don’t think that’s how the Good Place works,” Chidi said, although he hesitated a little. “Eleanor,” he said, but was interrupted by a loud crack and an ominous rumbling that set the floor shaking. “Oh wonderful,” he mumbled.

“What was that?” she asked.

“It sounded like the lightning may have knocked over a tree.”

Eleanor frowned. “Falling trees don’t cause earthquakes.”

“They do when the trees are holding up the sky,” Chidi said. She gaped at him. “Yeah, Michael told me the other day. Apparently it’s a common design feature in the Good Place, even though the Architects aren’t technically supposed to do it. It’s never caused a problem before, but then again, most neighborhoods don’t have the sort of weather ours does.” He glared at her, which made his face do the cute scrunchy thing again.

Oh fork. Fork, fork, fork. Eleanor had just been woken up in the middle of the night, and there was nutella flying around outside, and the sky was falling, and Chidi was still doing his adorable little frowning face, and without thinking she grabbed him by the front of his shirt (a button-down — who the hell wore button-down pajamas to sleep?) and kissed him.

He froze for a moment before he started flailing, and she pulled away quickly. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry. About all of this.” She waved a hand to encompass herself and the two of them and all the chaos outside.

“No, it’s, um.” He looked shell-shocked, but she watched him pull himself together. “Eleanor,” he said. “I’m flattered. But could this maybe wait until we’re not all actively doomed?”

“That’s not a no,” she said carefully.

“It’s more of an, I need to think about this before I can decide whether or not it’s something I want,” he said. “For now, though, we should go find Michael and figure out how to keep our neighborhood from collapsing.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, and followed him out into the night.


End file.
